49ers quarterback situation – Draft possiblities

The last time the 49ers had to draft a quarterback, they missed. As we all know Alex Smith was taken first overall in the 2005. To say the team missed, doesn’t necessarily impugn the ability of Smith, who could have possibly excelled with a more stable offense.

Is Colin Kaepernick on the 49ers’ radar?

Whatever the reason, the 49ers are back in the quarterback market, and according to Matt Barrows, they are doing their due diligence. Their best scout, Matt Malaspina, was present at Florida State’s workout on Wednesday to watch Christian Ponder. Daftnicks have Ponder possibly being the third quarterback taken after Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert and Auburn’s Cam Newton. The 49ers, however, seem more enamored with TCU’s Andy Dalton and Nevada’s Colin Kaepernick. According to Barrows, the workouts for those quarterbacks are the only two coach Jim Harbaugh has attended. But that might have to do with proximity more than anything else. Reno, for example, is a lot closer than Florida.

Kaepernick, with his movement ability and whip-like arm strength, was not high on the 49ers’ list directly after the season. But Kaepernick might have jumped on everyone’s draft board with his strong performances at the Senior Bowl and the combine. The issue is, do the 49ers want to go with another raw player from a spread-like attack from a lesser conference? With Harbaugh and his staff, maybe they feel they can develop Kaepernick just like they groomed Josh Johnson at San Diego University and Andrew Luck at Stanford.

The 49ers would be best served by drafting two quarterbacks, one project like Kaepernick and possibly another safer choice such as Ponder or Iowa’s Ricky Stanzi. Ponder and Stanzi come from traditional offenses. No one would argue if the 49ers traded back and/or took quarterbacks with their first two picks, because there’s certainly room on the roster for two young quarterbacks. It would be interesting to see if Gabbert or Newton or maybe even Ryan Mallet was there at no. 7, what the team would do.

Personally, I’m not a Mallet fan, and it’s not anything he did off the field, it’s his lack of mobility. As a 49er, he’s going to get pressured.